She sprawled across his body and he could feel the race of her heartbeat against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, knowing that this was only temporary but wishing it could be so much more. It was at least a half hour later that he felt her shift.
“We’ll make a cowgirl of you yet,” he teased as she got up and started to tug her clothes back on.
“Certainly has a few highlights to recommend it,” she responded just as lightly.
But he could see the shadow that passed across her face. Yes, she was equally as aware as he was that what they shared was transitory. Well, given that fact, there was only one thing for it. They had to make the most of the time they had available.
And he did. Over the next three days he took her everywhere around the ranch with him, even going so far as to getting her up on his oldest, gentlest mare for a rein-led walk. And every night they lost themselves in each other. Of course, he never forgot who and what she was. Not even for a minute. Hard to when she checked her messages daily for updates on the Hamm case and spent a good portion of each evening on her computer. And there was her ever-present handgun. She hadn’t worn it that first day they’d gone out in the chopper, but he couldn’t avoid seeing its bulk nestled under her blouse every day since.
For now, he felt as though they were living in a bubble, one where the outside world couldn’t get to them. Which was just the way he liked it. Jesse had told him that Janet was coming home from the hospital this week—the infection she’d developed when her appendix burst was now almost clear. By the time she was firmly back on the road to recovery, and Jesse was relieved of the concerns he’d suffered on his baby sister’s behalf, hopefully Zoe would have lost the bee in her bonnet about his best friend’s possible involvement in the murder case.
He should have known better.
Ten
Zoe had taken control of the kitchen, with Cord supervising her breakfast-cooking skills. It was hard to focus with him standing there, leaning against the kitchen countertop with his hair still damp from the shower they’d just had together. Granted, he was dressed, which should have reduced the impact he had on her senses even after these past few days staying together. But to Zoe’s surprise, her interest in Cord Galicia didn’t appear to be waning anytime soon. In fact, the longer she stayed here, the harder she found it to focus on her case.
She was just removing bacon from the grill when Cord’s cell phone trilled in his pocket.
“It’s my dad,” he said, checking the screen. “I need to take this.”
“No worries, I’ll keep everything warm for you.”
“Everything?” he asked, stealing a quick kiss from her already swollen lips.
“Go, answer your phone call!” she laughed, giving him a playful shove.
She could hear him talking in the living room. Heard the sincerity and love in his voice as he spoke with his father. The bond was strong there, she realized. It surprised her in some ways, because Cord seemed to be so very self-contained. Not needing anyone or anything.
Zoe broke eggs into the pan and added cream, dill and seasoning before scrambling them all together with a spatula. She was just ladling them out onto warmed plates when the house phone started to ring.
“Can you get that please?” Cord called from the other room.
“Sure,” Zoe replied and lifted the handset from the station in the kitchen. “Galicia residence.”
“Is Cord available?”
“I’m sorry, he’s on another call. Can I take a message?”
“Sure, it’s Frank. Can you tell him I can’t delay the repair of the sound and video equipment any longer? Nate’s getting antsy and I really don’t want to be in the sheriff’s bad books. Tell Cord we’re square now. I put it off as long as I could.”
Zoe’s brow furrowed in a frown. “Did you say sound and video equipment?”
“Yeah, yeah. Cord will know what I’m talking about. Can you just see he gets the message?”
“Oh, I’ll see he gets the message, all right,” she answered before severing the call.
Anger rose inside her like a storm surge, filling every nook and cranny of her mind and her body until it seeped from her pores like a palpable presence in the room. She replayed the conversation she’d just had over and over in her head. Each time it remained the same. Each time the result was damning. Cord had tampered with her investigation by deliberately delaying her interview with Jesse Stevens.
She heard a sound behind her and wheeled as Cord came back into the kitchen.
“Sorry about that. My dad sure can talk. He’s missing the ranch.” He came and stood beside her. “Hey, something’s wrong. What’s up?”
“You tell me,” she said tightly.
“What do you mean? Who was on the phone?”
“Your friend Frank.”
She watched his face as understanding dawned. “Ah.”
Cord’s expression closed up. Gone was the loving, playful cowboy who had occupied her days, and her nights. In place was the silent, careful man who’d greeted her the day she’d arrived in Royal.
“What you did was illegal. You deliberately hindered my investigation,” she said bitingly through clenched teeth. “I should arrest you for that.”
“Are you going to?”
“No. I don’t plan to waste another second on you. Besides, the paperwork would be more than you’re worth.”
She shoved past him and headed upstairs. He was behind her a split second later.
“Where are you going?”
“To do my job.”
She stormed into his bedroom, which they’d been sharing since that day out in the chopper, grabbed her bag and started throwing her things into it. Cord didn’t try to stop her. Didn’t so much as step in her way. She didn’t know what upset her more—the fact he’d done what he had, or the fact that he didn’t seem to care now that she knew. Then understanding dawned.
She wheeled to face him, hands fisted and planted on her hips.
“This was your intention all along, wasn’t it?” she demanded. “Keep me distracted so I wouldn’t question your buddy!”
To her utter humiliation he didn’t say a word, but she saw the truth in his eyes.
“You bastard!” she spat.
She snatched her bag from the bed and hammered down the stairs. She paused only long enough to grab her laptop and case from the sitting room and then she was out the door. He didn’t follow. He never said a word. And as bitter, angry tears started to track down her cheeks, she realized she’d been taken for a complete fool. Seduced by an oh-so-talented lover. Falling for all the stereotypes she’d sworn she’d never be caught by. Turned out she was just as fallible as anyone else. Worse, she’d been as stupid as some of her colleagues had always expected her to be. She’d lost sight of the case and all because a handsome man had paid her attention.
Well, she thought as she swiped the tears from her face and turned her car toward town, she’d learned her lesson, hadn’t she? This interview with Jesse Stevens was happening today, one way or another, and then she was heading home.
She drove directly to the sheriff’s office and parked outside. Thankfully Sheriff Battle was in when she asked for him, and he was quick to assure her that the interview room would be ready for her early in the afternoon. He also offered to contact Jesse himself and ask the guy to come in. All of which meant she had a few hours to cool her heels before she could complete her task here and then get the hell out of town.
Zoe headed to the Daily Grind and grabbed a coffee and something to eat. As she sat at the small table near the window and stared outside, she wondered if Cord had eaten the breakfast she’d just finished preparing before the scales had been torn from her eyes. Darn, but she’d been such an idiot. If anything, that hurt more than his lack of sincerity in starting their affair. And, yes, he’d sta
rted it. And she’d let him.
She suppressed the tingle that began in her body at the memory of that first night, of being pressed against the motel room door while he did incredible things to her. It had all been fake. A distraction tactic. And it had worked. But no more. She didn’t trust anyone, especially not Cord Galicia.
Her mobile phone pinged with a text confirming the interview with Jesse Stevens at one o’clock. She texted back her agreement and finished her coffee. She still had hours to kill. Realizing she needed to burn off some steam, Zoe went for a long walk. While she walked, her phone buzzed. She looked at the screen. Cord. Damn him. She declined the call and shoved the phone back into her pocket, where it began buzzing again. She ignored it, only to have the darn thing continue to go off at regular intervals. In the end she turned off her phone, but she’d worked up a fine head of steam by the time she was shown into the interview room at the station. Sheriff Battle was already there, setting up the equipment. He looked up, his expression growing wary as she walked in.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said sharply, then sighed. “No, actually I’m not fine, but my day will improve once I get this interview done and get back to Houston.”
“Sick of us already?”
She cracked a wry grin. “I do have a job to do. Seems everyone has forgotten that fact.”
Nate Battle shrugged. “Looked like you were getting real comfortable with Cord the other night when he took you back to his place.”
She stiffened. “He put me up for a few days, that’s all.”
He stared at her for a few moments, then nodded briefly. “Jesse should be here any minute. The recording equipment will upload a digital file to your email address when we’re done. It’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”
“Good,” she said. “Nice to know it’s all working fine now.”
“Yeah, about that...”
“Don’t worry about it. The problem’s sorted.”
Yes, the problem was sorted, and she’d begun to accept that she’d had a narrow escape from a dirty, low-down snake. It would have been all too easy to fall for Cord Galicia. She’d deeply enjoyed her time with him on the ranch, had even begun to see the beauty that held him there, although her craving for hot asphalt and skyscrapers still lingered beneath the surface. She shook her head slightly. Nope, she wasn’t going back down that memory track. She’d seal it up instead, for good.
A sound at the door made her turn and watch as one of the sheriff’s deputies showed Jesse Stevens into the room.
“Good afternoon, y’all,” he said, removing his hat and setting it on the desk between them.
Nate Battle didn’t waste any time. He launched straight into the formalities, inviting both Jesse and Zoe to take a seat and then turning on the equipment and making the introductory statement for the record. Zoe felt her skin itch as she waited her turn to fire the questions she’d been hanging out to ask. After confirming it was Jesse’s voice on Hamm’s phone, she pushed him a little harder.
“You were extremely angry with Mr. Hamm when you left that message, weren’t you?”
“I was.”
Jesse’s response was clipped, and she saw the glint of irritation in his green eyes.
“Could you state for the recording why you were angry with Mr. Hamm?”
“Sure. It’s common knowledge that over the years I did several favors for the guy. When the shoe was on the other foot and I asked him for help getting an internship at Perry Holdings for my sister, he flat out refused. Seems the big city and his job there made him think he was too good for his old friends back home.”
“I can see why that would have upset you,” she said, baiting him.
“Upset me, yes. But not enough to murder the guy. I did not kill Vincent Hamm. I was mad at him, for sure, but I took it on the chin and moved on. I told you that around the time they say he was murdered I was three hours away from Houston, attending a stock auction.” He reached inside his jacket pocket and drew out a folded wad of paper. “Here,” he said, unfolding the papers and stabbing them with his finger. “As requested, my receipts. Motel, gas and copies of sale agreements.”
Zoe looked over at Nate, who reached for the papers and carefully scrutinized them.
“It all looks genuine,” he said carefully. “Covers the three-day window of time in which Hamm’s murder most likely occurred, no question.”
“Of course it’s genuine,” Jesse interjected. “I keep telling you. I’m innocent. Look, I’m sorry the guy is dead. No one deserved to die like that, but maybe he had it coming from someone other than me. Maybe he said no to just one person too many.”
“Running my investigation now, are we?” Zoe added acerbically.
“I apologize, ma’am,” Jesse said. “Not my place, I know. But stand in my shoes for a minute and think about this. I would lose my family, my home—everything—if I were guilty of what you’re suggesting. Look, if those receipts aren’t enough for you, let me take a polygraph. I know you have one here, Nate. Hook me up. It’ll prove my innocence.”
Nate looked at Zoe with a question clear in his eyes. She took her time answering. On the surface, it would seem that Jesse Stevens was telling the truth. She sighed. Another dead end.
“Sure,” she said to both men. “Let’s do it.
* * *
It was close to four o’clock before the sheriff walked her out to her car. A sheet of paper flapped from under one of her wiper blades.
“Are you kidding me?” she groaned when she spied the parking fine.
Nate laughed and took it from her hand. “Let me take care of it.”
“Thanks,” she answered and opened her car door. “And thanks for your help today. I’m sure you probably had better things to do.”
He shrugged. “There’s always something to do around here. Might not be the bright lights and the big city, but it’s never dull. You’re satisfied now that Jesse’s not your man?”
She nodded—a grimace twisting her features. “Yeah, but it puts us back to square one again. I’m sorry, Sheriff. I know you made promises to Hamm’s family. I’d hoped we’d be able to bring them some closure by now.”
“It’s okay. I know you’re not going to quit on this.”
“Oh, trust me. Quitting is not in my nature. Obviously I need to shift focus. I’ve gone over and over my notes, but there’s something I’m just not seeing. I keep coming back to the crime scene. It’s gotta be someone connected to the building, or maybe even to someone connected to Perry Holdings. But where are the damn clues? Hamm must have seen or heard something that had gotten him killed, so why can’t I find it?”
“You will. Eventually.”
She laughed, but it lacked any humor. “Yeah. Maybe it’ll shake loose on the drive back.”
“It’s getting late. You sure you don’t want to stay an extra night?”
“No, definitely not. I need to get back,” she said firmly. “I’ve been away too long as it is.”
“Sure. You know, there were a lot of people surprised to see you with Cord at the club the other night.”
“So glad I could provide entertainment for their evening,” she commented cynically.
“He hasn’t been seen out with anyone since Britney died.”
“Britney?” There was that name again. Maybe now she’d find out why it had been oddly familiar to her.
“Yeah, they were engaged. Last time anyone saw them together was the night he asked her to marry him at the club a little over two years ago, just before she went to the police academy.”
“She was a cop?”
“Yup, Houston P.D. Died on her first patrol. Nearly destroyed Cord when the news came through she’d been shot.”
Understanding dawned. “I remember that. I didn’t work the case myself, but everyone assigned to it was fo
cused on finding her killers.”
“It was a bad time for everyone who knew Britney, but most of all for Cord. His parents even delayed their retirement to help him out.”
“And he hasn’t been out with anyone since?” she blurted without thinking.
The sheriff shook his head. “Folks wondered if you’d be staying on.”
She barked a laugh. “No offense, Sheriff, but Royal’s just a little too tame for me.”
“That has its benefits,” he said with a smile that showed he wasn’t in the least offended.
Zoe held out her hand. “Thanks for everything. I’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you. And that file and the polygraph report will be waiting for you when you get to work tomorrow.”
After shaking hands, she got into her car and tapped her address into the map app on her phone. Then with a final wave to the sheriff, she headed out of Royal.
As she drove, her mind began to wander. So Cord had been engaged, and she’d been his first relationship since then. Not that it made any difference. He’d gone out with her only to stop her from interviewing Jesse. She thought back to the day she’d met him, to his dismissive attitude of her being a cop. All the pieces fit. But none of it excused him for using her the way he had.
Eleven
Her eyes were grainy with exhaustion by the time she pulled into her parking garage, but at least she was home. She’d taken only a short break about two hours out of Houston to grab some food and something to drink at a gas station. Food, she snorted as she grabbed her bag and laptop. Cardboard with processed meat and cheese, more like. She wondered if there was anything edible left in her apartment. Unlikely, but she’d take her chances when she got upstairs.
She exited the elevator and turned down the corridor to her apartment. All weariness fled and adrenaline flooded her system as she spied someone loitering near her front door. She dropped her things and reached for her gun just as the man turned around to face her. Shock replaced the adrenaline as she identified Cord.
Tangled With A Texan (Texas Cattleman’s Club: Houston Book 8) Page 11